David Dabling's Blog

Giving a story a genre can feel like magic—until it starts shrinking your potential audience before the first page is even turned. You might expect me to rail against genres after that opening line. Quite the opposite.

Genres matter. They set clear expectations. If you promise a mystery but deliver no real puzzle, readers feel cheated. Call your book a ghost story with no actual ghosts, and you’ve broken faith. Market it as “cozy” but pack it with bloody jump-scares, and you’re the literary equivalent of a dishonest mechanic. No one comes back for seconds.

The problem isn’t the tool—it’s the toolbox. There are only so many neatly labeled round holes, and some stories are stubbornly square pegs.

Take my Liana and Dylan series.

Ghosts in the Wings features very real ghosts, a chapter-long parody of murder-mystery tropes, and a loving couple at its heart. Yet it isn’t quite a paranormal mystery (the mystery is light and playful), nor a paranormal romance (no one is falling in love for the first time), and it’s far too gentle to be horror. It’s simply a story about people—some living, some dead—trying to make sense of their overlapping worlds.

Ghosts of the Drive follows the same couple on a road-trip vacation. More ghosts, more gentle humor, another affectionate nod to classic mystery writing. Again, the heart of the book is warmth, laughter, kindness, and the quiet drama of living (and dying). Cozy? Yes. Paranormal mystery? Not really. The “mystery” resolves in one chapter and serves the characters rather than the plot.

The newest book, The Cursed House and Haunted Land, comes closest to fitting a ready-made label. Plenty of ghosts, a secondary romance that actually ends in marriage, and the ever-present love between Liana and Dylan. You could call it a cozy paranormal love story… but the romance isn’t the main engine. The story is still about people—living and dead—navigating love, loss, forgiveness, and the thin veil between worlds.

Genre is a helpful signpost, not a cage.
It keeps science-fiction fans from accidentally buying a scholarly treatise on ancient Roman road-building techniques. That’s a genuine service. But it also forces storytellers to cram square stories into the nearest round hole and leaves readers arguing in reviews about whether a book “counts” as its listed genre.

So here’s my gentle request: When you pick up a book and the genre feels only close to what you expected, give the story a little grace. You might discover something richer than any single label could contain.

I’m obviously biased, but I believe these tales are worth your time. Many Goodreads reviewers seem to agree, and that still makes me grin like a kid. If you haven’t met Liana and Dylan yet, you can learn more about the series (and see the beautiful site my marketing partner and designer created) at https://daviddabling.online/.

I’d love for you to stop by—and even more, I’d love for you to meet the living and the dead who share those pages.

This month I’m excited to release my new book, The Cursed Land and Haunted House, on June 22, 2026. It’s the third story in the Liana & Dylan series—gentle, heartwarming tales about a young married couple who help lost souls find their way to the other side.

People often ask where the series came from. The answer is wonderfully circular.

It all started when I challenged myself to write the most cliché opening line possible: “The land was cursed and the house was haunted.” That single silly sentence sparked an entire story. I decided the book should unfold on a bright, sunny day instead of a stormy night, and the main characters should be a fearless young married couple who bid on the cursed property at auction—despite the locals’ warnings.

Liana and Dylan aren’t afraid of ghosts. They see them as lost souls who need help to move on. As I wrote their story, I fell in love with the couple and realized they deserved a proper backstory. So, I went back and wrote the first two books.

Ghosts in the Wings–Newlyweds move into their first apartment and discover it comes with several unexpected ghostly residents.

Ghosts of the Drive–Dylan tries to escape ghost-hunting for a peaceful road trip along U.S. Highway 12 in Washington… only to find more spirits in need of help. By the end of the journey, he finally admits he loves what they do.

And that brings us full circle to The Cursed Land and Haunted House.

I hope you grow to love Liana and Dylan as much as I do. If you haven’t met them yet, June 22 is the perfect day to join their adventure. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX2ZN26H.

P.S. If you want a running start on the story before book 3 publishes. I will have a one-day eBook giveaway of Ghosts in the Wings on June 8. Find it at. https://a.co/d/h2nqIAu.

Ghosts of the Drive book 2, will have an eBook giveaway on June 15. Find it at https://a.co/d/dO9m9X3.

Let me begin with a friendly warning: think twice before killing your spouse in a story.

Many people consider killing a spouse to be anti-social. It’s especially unwise when you’re newly married. Your wife (or husband) hasn’t yet adjusted to the fact that you’re a writer. To them, murdering a spouse on the page can feel… personal. Possibly even rude.

I speak from painful experience.

Fifty-two years ago, I excitedly told my new wife the plots I was developing. In the first story, my main character was a tragic widower, still heartbroken over his wife’s death. My wife looked concerned.

A few months later, I described another idea: a man whose wife had gone missing. He couldn’t prove he hadn’t killed her, yet he missed her terribly. This time my wife went very quiet.

I thought a bereaved husband made for a sympathetic protagonist. She apparently did not.

After a long silence, she finally asked, “Why do you keep wanting to kill your wife in these stories? Are you trying to tell me something about our marriage?”

I stammered that losing a spouse was simply tragic and emotionally powerful. She remained unconvinced.

Thankfully, fifty-two years and many stories later, she no longer worries. She has concluded I’m far too shallow to hide any deep, dark psychological messages in my fiction. My characters die for purely superficial reasons.

Spouses safely off-limits, let’s talk about everyone else.

Pay attention to the names you give your characters — especially the ones who suffer, get insulted, humiliated, or dramatically killed off. It’s surprisingly easy to subconsciously name the idiot sidekick after your brother-in-law or the sleazy villain after your cousin.

I’ve done it. More than once.

At first I tried solving the problem by inventing wild, exotic names no one in my family could possibly share. The problem is a wildly exotic name in a rural America setting goes over with a thud with readers.

The real solution came when I discovered https://www.behindthename.com. It’s an absolute goldmine for writers. You select the character’s gender, ethnicity, and cultural background, and the site generates realistic, fitting names. If your hateful, wife-beating villain ends up named after a real family member, you can honestly shrug and say, “Hey, it was random.”

Highly recommended. Your relatives and friends will thank you for keeping them out of your stories.

(And if they don’t… well, at least you have plausible deniability.)

(This post is about writing, I promise.)

In college, I joined an ensemble children’s theater company. We were promised paid gigs entertaining audiences across the state. In reality, we mostly got permission to perform at venues and pass the hat afterward. As the year wore on and the tips dwindled, the group quietly fell apart.

Professor John, who’d founded the company, had one last desperate idea: a USO tour. I didn’t know that at the time.

Heading to movement class one day, an eager new freshman stopped me in the hall. “Hey, is it true about the big tour for the Players?”

I told him the truth: I’d left the company, and I hadn’t heard a word about any tour.

He insisted.

I denied.

He insisted again. I denied it again.
Rather than keep looping, I decided absurdity might break through. I leaned in and unloaded the fantasy: The U.S. State Department wanted us for a nine-month international tour to spread American culture. All expenses paid—no cost to us students. Better yet, a $100 daily per diem on top of tour pay. Technically minimum wage but calculated on a 24-hour day because we’d be representing the U.S. every moment. Anything over eight hours? Time-and-a-half overtime.

His eyes lit up. “That sounds amazing.”

“Doesn’t it sound a little too good to be true?” I asked.

He shrugged. “The government has tons of money. But what about school? Nine months is a whole year.”

I sighed dramatically and shook my head. “They’re sending faculty to tutor us in every subject. And to make sure we really see the world, they’re fielding three rotating companies. We perform one day, off two. Best hotels, finest restaurants—the works.”

He paused, brow furrowing. “Okay… that does sound a bit much.”

I smirked. “It’s a lot much. You wouldn’t accept the simple truth—that I knew nothing about any tour—so I fed you the most ridiculous lie I could invent. Now you must see it’s nonsense.”

He blinked. “So… which part was true?”

“Just the first part: there is no tour. Everything else was pure bull. Come on—you’ve seen our little children’s story theater. It was charming for local kids, maybe, but nobody’s flying us around the globe to perform it. Nobody’s paying for that.”

He laughed awkwardly. “Okay, I’m sorry I asked.”

I thought that was the end. It wasn’t. As I walked toward the theater complex, my best friend intercepted me, excited.
“Dude, did you hear about the big tour? They’ve got details—”

I raised my eyebrows looking at him.
He thought about the story for a moment. He made a face saying I had stepped in it this time. “You… you told that story to the freshman, didn’t you?”

I confessed.
That wasn’t the end. I stepped into movement class—taught by Professor John. The moment our eyes met, I knew. The rumor had reached him, embroidered with every extravagant detail I’d invented. He didn’t say a word, but the look said everything.

Storytelling is powerful. One well-told (or wildly over-told) narrative can spread faster than truth, reshape perceptions, and even reach the person you least want to fool.

Be careful what stories you let loose—especially the ones you craft for effect. Words don’t just entertain. They shape belief. And once belief takes root, it’s hard to uproot.

Use that power thoughtfully.

Hi everyone,

I owe a small (or maybe not-so-small) apology to those of you kind enough to follow along here: it’s been a couple of months since I posted anything new. My wife and closest friends would probably say it’s been decades since I said anything genuinely new—which… might not be entirely unfair.

Something thoughtful and rather uncommon landed in my inbox recently. A book club is planning to spotlight Ghosts in the Wings and they wrote to ask whether it would be okay for members to leave reviews or reach out to me directly with feedback.

The short answer is: yes — absolutely yes.

Reviews are incredibly valuable for any author, especially one without a huge built-in audience. Five-star reviews obviously feel wonderful. Four-star reviews are still great. Three-star reviews? Totally fine — I don’t expect the book to be everyone’s cup of tea. One- or two-star reviews can sting (I’m human), and if the criticism is sharp I’d honestly prefer it arrive privately via email rather than publicly — but either way, I’d rather hear your real thoughts than silence.

You can find an email contact form right on the landing page:
https://daviddabling.online

So, to be very clear:
• Reviews are warmly welcomed (on Amazon, Goodreads, your own blog, wherever you post them)
• Emails and direct messages are equally welcome — and I do my best to answer every one

I’ll always hope a reader loved the book, of course. But the truth is that the simple act of someone taking time to write anything — glowing, thoughtful, critical, or somewhere in between — is already meaningful. Honest feedback helps me grow as a writer far more than another five star without comment ever could.

There’s something quietly magical that happens when a story leaves the writer’s head and finds a reader. Characters who once only existed in my imagination — Liana, Dylan, and the rest — get to live again inside someone else’s heart and mind. When a reader writes back about them, even briefly, it closes a kind of circle. It’s a little like hearing how the world is treating the children you love. Their lives become a bit more real, a bit more complete.

So, thank you — truly — to everyone who has ever left a review, sent an email, or just quietly passed the book along to a friend. You turn what is usually a very solitary process (imagination → keyboard → publish → wait) into something shared and alive.

Announcement corner
If you read this in time my first two books are available for a free eBook give away on Amazon the 4th and 5th of February. Sorry but after the fifth they will be regular price.

Wishing you the love of story.
David

Time has a way of getting away from you. I have not added any blog posts for a while. The truth is I don’t really feel as though I have that many interesting things to say. Then I get an email asking about where story ideas come from, or how I develop stories. So, if this is a repeat of anything I have said please forgive me.

Story ideas will be another blog. I thought that how I develop stories might be something worthwhile. I tell bedtime stories to myself. I need to start a story before I do. Maybe being a chapter or two in and having an idea where the next chapter is going. Then as I lay in bed trying to sleep at night, I start the chapter in my head. Usually not dialog or details just the flow of the chapter and maybe a specific line or two. Then the next morning, after morning routine I sit down at the computer. I then start to write the chapter. The words flow well since I know what is happening. It may not be exactly what I put myself to bed with, but it is close. Sometimes I only get a thousand or so words before life gets in the way. But assuming I finish a chapter I consider the big picture of what comes next before bedtime. Then I repeat the process as I fall asleep.

There is a problem, however. When I have finished the book’s first draft, I can’t edit myself to sleep at night. When I do not have a new story to work on. When I am rewriting or editing, I have insomnia. If asked why I write that is easy to answer. I want a good night’s sleep.

Here is my landing page address. https://daviddabling.online
Here is my Goodreads page in case you enjoy reading reviews. https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...

I feel very fortunate to have a few followers on this platform. Would I like thousands more? Of course, if they are not bots. As I write a new posting, I worry I might upset someone and lose a follower. I am concerned not because I am so greedy for followers. I just don’t enjoy upsetting people.

I agree with Elwood Dowd in the play and movie Harvey. He says, 'In this world, you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.'

I often forget myself and try to be smart. If I do, I ask my followers to remember my intent is to be pleasant.

What does this have to do with writing? Like many writers, I am not very outgoing. I am not speaking for all writers here, but I suspect what I am saying would suit many of my fellow authors.

I am not afraid of public speaking. If a class instructor doesn’t show up and I am asked to step up and teach, I’ll do it. If a business meeting must start but the featured speaker isn’t ready, I will accept the invitation to distract the auditorium to fill the time. In the army, I could take command when called on to do so.

All that being said, if it is not my role to take over, or I am not asked, I am more than happy to sit quietly alone. Not antisocial, just willing to let others take the lead in sociability. My default is not to be a complete introvert. I will interact with people outside my head if someone starts a conversation. However, without an official role calling for me to be outgoing, I won’t ever be the life of the party either.

The truth, of course, I am not sitting quietly alone. Behind my shy but pleasant façade, a cast of characters is busy responding to a situation. Inside my head, action, dialog, and world building are happening. I am enjoying the party, watching others and storing mannerisms that may someday be part of a story. If I leave the party early, it is not because I didn’t enjoy the event. I leave to get something onto my computer.

If you read this between October 2, 2025, and October 6, 2025, I invite you to get a free copy of my eBook Ghosts in the Wings. Here is a link: https://shorturl.at/JyNtK . Of course, if you want to buy the paperback that is available there as well.

This blog is about persistence. Persistence is a positive character trait, unless it isn’t. I am writing this as an author. A first draft is seldom good enough, even if it is more fun to write. To make a manuscript worth reading takes persistence. It must be rewritten, checked, submitted to alpha readers to get feedback, rewritten, and listened to while following in the text. Then it must go to beta readers, and rewritten. After which the story must go to editors and be rewritten. Persistence is needed.

When the manuscript is ready it goes out to agents to query. Once again persistence is essential. One agent is seldom enough. Despite rejection you keep trying. Each no from an agent is a step closer to a yes. A yes may come someday if you persist. What a writer must not be is persistent with a specific agent after the book is rejected.

Many agents are rude enough not to answer a submission with a rejection. They are so busy they don’t have time to send a preformatted rejection to the writer who has spent thousands of hours on the story, The best agents are professional enough to send a rejection. The writer must be wise enough not to persist with that agent on the current work. Persistently trying other agents yes. But the agents are busy and not inviting arguments with their decision. The writer must accept no and not persist with that agent.

Frustrating for the writer is while they understand no is no on their book, looking in the other direction, they are deluged with contacts from marketers of one kind and another. Sadly, most of these author vendors know the same lesson. They do not accept no is no. Thus, an author who is polite enough to answer must waste writing time every day being persistent in telling them no, again.

I love writing and hope in a few more years I will finally be an overnight success. I’ll just persist in writing and accept every day will start after I tell more marketers I am not adding to my team. I hope you have fun in your day today.

It seems a shame to me that since Amazon owns Good Reads the reviews I get on one platform or the other cannot be cross posted. I am humbled by some of the excellent reviews my books have received on Good Reads. I have fewer reviews on Amazon but there are some I would like to share excerpts from here. The FAQ area on Good Reads say that I can do that in my blogs, so here goes.

GHOSTS IN THE WINGS
What a surprise, and what a treat as well, to come across this sweet, compelling, slightly weird and most delightful story of a sort of misfit and ragtag band of both living and dead people, each with their own unique histories, talents, backgrounds, and desires and vision of the future. They all come together to make a fledgling apartment community work, and rehab and make great again a grand old theater stage that has come to life.
These are precious characters. None more so than the ghost that is an atheist and does not believe in the supernatural. An aging actress that does not want to be known by her professional name and would just as well forget her past. Needless to say, her past is not forgotten, and her future is about to become considerably brighter. . . . Larry L. Caplin (Lee Capp) There is more on Amazon—thanks Larry.

GHOSTS OF THE DRIVE
Well, it seems that Mr. Dabling has done it again. To be a bit more precise, he has done it even better this time than his first effort, GHOSTS IN THE WINGS. Both are quite lovely. Both are capable of bringing a tear to the eye and a lump to the throat. I especially loved the ghost deer chapter. There is little being written these days to compare. The GHOSTS OF THE DRIVE is a novel of individual chapters, each the story of an encounter with a ghost or ghosts with a serious problem. The inability to move away from the earth, and on to a waiting Heaven.. . . Thanks again Larry, I am glad you enjoyed both books

ROCKY AND TIGER
Recommended for family reading time!
Visiting twins could cause chaos for an older couple not used to having young people around. How would they keep kids in control? Hmmm, what could the children get away with? Lots, probably.
Well, the Grandma and Grandpa in this story are clever although it isn’t apparent to the reader (at first) or to the children. Grandpa tells part of a story after Grandma somehow gains the attention and help from the children during the day. A fun story is interwoven throughout.
Delightful read and great ideas for any grandparents who are having grandchildren visit.-- Carolyn Wilhelm

This is one of my favorite children's chapter books because of its insight into how people think and behave. While a pleasant, exciting story of a dog's growing pains in a family, it contains gems like this passage:
"Grandpa," said Anne. "Tell us a story."
"I only know one story," said Grandpa. "That story is sixty-six years long and so boring I slept through a third of it myself. Besides, you can't put off bedtime for sixty-six years."
"Tell us only a little bit of the story, Grandpa," Anne said.
"Yes," said Abigail seeing that this attempt to stay up might work. "Tell us a part of the story you stayed awake for."
A key to comedy is making visible what's been in front of us all the time, and recognizing it so that we share that perception. With just a few words and actions between characters, this book does that. -- Larry Baum

BRIDGING GAPS
I really enjoyed this book. Such a great love story!
--Mari

I know this has been self-indulgent, but I want Good Reads readers to know about these books. I am prejudiced but I love these stories and hope to share them with more readers.

In my previous blog, I discussed crafting the first draft of a novel. But the journey doesn’t end there—great novels aren’t written; they’re rewritten.

Rewriting is where your story transforms. Scenes that sparked joy during creation might not serve the narrative. As a writer, you may cherish these gems, but if they don’t captivate the reader, they must go. Slash.

Other parts of the story might seem crystal-clear in your mind but leave readers confused without your perspective. This is where you add depth, clarify details, and let the story evolve.

Sometimes, a new character emerges to tie the narrative together. But what happens when you fall in love with this character? Do they steal the spotlight and reshape the story? Do you spin them off into a separate tale? Or do you let them play their role and fade into the background?

These tough choices test your vision and discipline. Up to this point, the process is deeply rewarding. You’ve polished your manuscript to near-perfection.

Now, it’s time to invite fresh eyes—editors, beta readers, or critique partners—to uncover flaws you might have missed.

If you enjoyed this glimpse into the novelist’s journey, consider subscribing to my newsletter at https://daviddablingonline.online.

You’ll receive a free copy of my short story Infernal Piping, part of the series featuring Liana and Dylan Garrett and the ghosts they encounter.

Plus, don’t miss your chance to grab a free eBook of Ghosts of the Drive, Book Two in the Liana and Dylan stories, available on Amazon through September 8, 2025: Get your copy here.